The Central Bureau of Statistics has published a special survey aimed at assessing the expectations of the high-tech sector in Israel, from which a clear conclusion can be drawn: despite layoffs and talk of recession, high-tech Israeli remains optimistic.
According to the survey, 51% of high-tech companies responded that they expect an increase in activity in the coming year. Furthermore, only one in ten of the companies responded that they expect a real reduction in activity. In other words, contrary to dark forecasts and reports of a large reduction in the United States and Europe, about 90% of companies responded that they do not expect a reduction in activity. In addition, 37% of companies reported that they do not expect a significant change in activity in the coming year.
The survey examined the expectations of company executives in the high-tech sector in the context of five key aspects (activity, employee recruitment, wages, credit, and capital raising) and using of a comparison between high technology services (computer software, computer consulting, information services, and R&D) and industrial high technology (pharmaceutical production, computers, electronic and optical instruments, aircraft manufacturing, etc.).
The survey shows that optimism among the services sector (which currently constitutes the majority of high-tech activity, both in terms of employees and exports) is much higher than in the of the industry. Some 52% of service companies expected an increase, compared to 38% in industry. Also, optimism among the high-tech sector is significantly higher compared to the rest of the economy, where only about 30% reported an expectation of increased activity.
In the survey there appears to be optimism for personnel issues as well: More than 40% of the high-tech companies interviewed answered that they are expected to hire more employees in the coming year, compared to 17% who believe that n -number of new companies. employees will decrease.
Looking at this figure by sector, you can see that in the high-tech industry sector 29% expect a reduction in hiring, which is more pessimistic than in the services sector (17%). At the same time, outside the high-tech sector, the expected reduction in hiring is much lower (9%), and around half of the companies responded that they do not expect any change.
In terms of wages, more than 56% of high-tech companies believe they will increase in the coming year, when in this context there is no difference between services and industry. In addition, only 2% of high-tech companies reported that they expect a decrease in wages in the coming year. For the rest of the economy as well, companies expect a salary increase (around 45% reported an expectation of a salary increase), apparently against the backdrop of increased inflation over the last year. The expected wage reduction in the rest of the economy is similar to high tech and is only 2%.
The results regarding credit are not surprising and should not worry the Bank of Israel, with the overwhelming majority of the economy not anticipating significant changes. In terms of raising capital, 42% of high-tech companies expect an increase, compared to 15% of companies in the rest of the economy. In the high-tech services sector, the proportion of companies expecting an increase in capital raising is 42%, compared to the industrial sector where a single digit proportion was recorded. In addition, the percentage of companies in the services sector that reported an expected reduction in funding was zero.
